Le Meridien eyes 12.5 per cent increase
in outbound business

NEW DELHI, Oct 24: Le Meridien Hotels Resorts, which manages six hotels in the country, is looking at nine million pounds outbound business from the country, up 12.5 per cent from last year.

Le Meridien India area director, sales and marketing, (northern India), Arif Patel told UNI that the group was looking at enhanced outbound business, besides attracting more domestic tourists.

"The Le Meridian group takes India as a serious business proposition and a growing market, and as part of our future plans, we are looking for new partners for growth.

"As part of these plans, we organise several roadshows and campaigns to make corporates as well as travellers aware of the facilities we offer, that too at very competitive rates," he said.

To make bookings easy, the group has widely advertised a toll-free number, using which a person could make bookings in Le Meridien hotels and resorts across the globe.

"Looking at the wonderful response to this facility, which was initially available in 18 cities, we spread it to 90 cities.

"This provides prospective customers easy information on reservation confirmation, hotel location, rates, among other things," Mr Patel said.

Among the various other facilities offered by the group to its customers, is procuring visa for West Asian countries.

Le Meridien hotels and resorts runs more than 150 properties in around 55 countries.

Apart from its tie-ups with various travel agencies and business houses like CII, FICCI, the group also has partnership with other hotel chains. "Hotel Nikko and Le Meridien are part of each others’ marketing programmes and together, we offer around 200 hotels for travellers and tourists.

"Nikko’s strength is in far East countries like Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and combined with our hotels, we offer a wide variety of services and options to our customers," he said.

Le Meridien India runs six hotels in the country — Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Cochin.

Mr Patel said the initial recession, witnessed by the hospitality industry following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, had waned off and business was looking up.

"In regard to our hotels, I can say that they are running well and occupancy is satisfactory.

He said the group was now also focussing more on domestic travellers.

"With the recent drop in airline rates and other factors, we saw an increase in business and feel that if continued, it would give the much-needed fillip to the hotel, hospitality and tourism industry."

However, he said the Government should take steps to rationalise the tax structure which varies from State to State.

"This certainly confuses tourists, especially foreign, and gives a negative picture of the country," he said, adding that there was a need for a uniform tax structure across the country.

Sources in the group said it was focussed on expanding presence in India, though no plans to participate in the disinvestment of ITDC hotels.

"As part of the expansion plans, we plan to make further investments in the country," they said, without giving further details. (UNI)

MPSEB proposes 25 percent hike in power tariff

BHOPAL, Oct 25: The Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board (MPSEB) has sent a proposal to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (MPSERC) for an overall hike of 25 per cent in existing power tariff.

Board Chairman S K Dasgupta told newsmen here yesterday that the MPSEB had been bearing per unit loss of Rs 1.45 since the formation of new state of Chhattisgarh in November, 2000.

The power generation capacity of Madhya Pradesh plummeted by 1350 mw after the creation of the new State and the MPSEB was facing annual loss of nearly Rs 1200 crore, he said.

He said the board would continue to have per unit loss of 79 paise even if the Commission approved the proposed hike in power tariff.

The MPSEB had filed the petition before the Commission to determine the electricity tariff for high tension (HT) and low tension (LT) consumer last month, he said adding that the commission would soon start the 15-day public hearing on the tariff petition. Mr Dasgupta said domestic and small commercial consumers would be faced with an average increase of 50 per cent while average 3.9 per cent hike was proposed for HT consumers. The 25 per cent hike was proposed for coal mines and 20 per cent for water works and HT irrigation, he added.

Referring to agriculture sector, he said 67 per cent increase was proposed for meter-pumps and 121 per cent for flat rate pumps.

He said farmers would be charged Rs 400 per season per horse power for their kharif crops and Rs 1200 per horse power for rabi and summer crops. Farmers sowing crops in all the three season would have to pay Rs 5600 per horse power, he added.

Mr Dasgupta said the farmers depositing payment in advance would be given ten per cent rebate.

Replying to a query, he said for domestic consumers, average power tariff rate was proposed at Rs 3.15 per unit from Rs 2.13 at present.

He said the hike proposal was made in accordance with the centre’s cost-based system under the power reformation policy. (UNI)

British e-commerce minister visiting India to promote trade

BANGALORE, Oct 25: British Minister of State for E-commerce and Competitiveness, Stephen Timms, is arriving here next week to promote bilateral trade and investment in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

Timms would lead the UK delegation to Bangalore it.com 2002, Indian Cilicon Valley’s annual technology showpiece, that kicks off on Monday and address the opening of the five-day event.

"India has an extremely strong technology skills base from which the UK can learn a great deal. And in return we can offer India a thriving technology market", a release issued by British trade office here quoted Timms as saying on the eve of his three-day visit to India.

On Monday, Timms, who had worked in the computing and telecommunications industry for 15 years, would visit Genesys, Logica and Infosys here, second Secretary at the British trade office, Kelvin Green told reporters today.

Incidentally, he had worked for Logica and then for Ovum.

Timms would hold discussions with Minister of State for Communications and IT Sumitra Mahajan in New Delhi, top Nasscom officials and also attend a round-table organised by FICCI on telecom regulatory issues on Tuesday.

At the Bangalore it.com, the British group of SMES and business service providers would exhibit at the IT nations pavilion, supported by trade partners UK and intellectuk, leading trade association for the software and electronics industries in the UK, it was stated. (PTI)

Arafat Petro to take over JK units in Kota

JAIPUR, Oct 25: Decks have been cleared for resumption of work in the industrial units of J&K synthetics in Kota under the new management of Arafat Petrochemicals Ltd, Rajasthan Labour Commissioner Rajendra Bhanawat said here today.

All disputes regarding payment of dues to workers, working conditions under the new employer and other issues have been sorted out in several rounds of meetings between the management, the new employer Arafat Petrochemicals and the staff association, under the aegis of labour department, Bhanawat said in a release.

The agreement will benefit 4000 workers rendered jobless after the closure of units six years back.

Arafat Petrochemicals group of Gujarat would now run the units under the agreed package providing for re-employment of workers and clearance of past dues of labourers. The benefit of payment of old dues would also be given to the retired, dead, suspended and sacked employees.

As per a Supreme Court order, Rs 2.40 crores have been provided in the agreement for workers retrenched in 1983, Bhanawat said. (PTI)

Single-window clearance for foreign filmmakers soon

NEW DELHI, Oct 25: A process has been initiated for giving single window clearance to Indian filmmakers and those from overseas who want to shoot in different parts of the country.

Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Vinod Khanna, who is himself a renowned actor agreed that many producers from abroad have had to shift their locations to neighbouring countries because of rejection or delays in clearance of scripts.

"With the right kind of policies, things will move faster," Mr Khanna said in an informal chat with newspersons soon after the screening last night of his latest film ‘Leela’ made by a team of Non-Resident Indians in the United States.

Directed by Somnath Sen for producers Kavita Munjal and Anjalika Mathur, the film co-stars Dimple Kapadia, Dipti Naval and Gulshan Grover and introduces young America-based NRI Amol Mhatre along with Brendan Hughes and Michelle Van Wagner.

Mr Khanna described as "healthy" the trend of films being made by NRIs or by Indians who go abroad to shoot, adding that "films are the single largest factor in bonding Non-Resident Indians."

He said rich NRIs who had made money in Information Technology or other fields were now looking for new investment avenues, and Indian cinema was among the most favourite areas in view of recent forays made by Bollywood overseas. He said there was a great regard for Indian cinema in the United States, even among the non-Indians. Answering a question about the depiction of the underworld in Bollywood cinema, the minister said films were only a reflection of real life. But most of them had always condemned terrorism and other evils in society and suggested solutions wherever possible, he added.

He said tourist promotion overseas will include publicity about shooting locations in India. This will include details about infrastructure availability and state-of-the-art facilities in studios like the Mumbai Film City or the Ramoji Rao studios near Hyderabad.

‘Leela’, which is slated for release next week, stars Mr Khanna as a renowned Mumbai-based Urdu poet. The film is the story of his wife Leela who goes to the United States as guest lecturer and the turmoil caused in her life partly because of a clash with Western values and partly by the ways of her philandering husband.

Mr Khanna said he identified with the hero since he has learnt classical music and loves Urdu poetry. Noting he had obtained special permission from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to continue acting in films, he said he had not signed any major film for several years. However, he has just finished shooting a film directed by Shravani Deodhar for producer Raveena Tandon and presented by the Sahara group.

‘Leela’ was shot in Los Angeles last year in a single stretch of 36 days at a cost of about one million dollars. It has already been to several international film festivals and won awards here including Manchester, New York and Cairo. It will be commercially released in the US later this year.

Its director, Somnath Sen is a student of the UCLA and has worked as associate director for several filmmakers in Bollywood and Hollywood. (UNI)

Minimum floor level wage increased by Rs 5

NEW DELHI, Oct 25: The minimum floor level wage has been increased by Rs five at the national level to Rs 50 per day with effect from September one, 2002.

Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma has written to all State Governments to ensure that no worker was paid less than Rs. 50 per day as the minimum wage in scheduled employments, official sources said here today.

Sources said the national floor level minimum wage of Rs. 35 was fixed in 1996 on the recommendations of the National Commission on Rural Labour.

It was increased to Rs. 40 in August 1998 in scheduled employments and subsequently raised to Rs. 45 in November 1999.

The number of scheduled employments in the Central Government is 45 whereas in the state sphere the number is 1,232, the sources said. (PTI)

Rupee posts fresh gains against US dollar

MUMBAI, Oct 25: The rupee posted modest gains against the US currency today on fresh exporter dollar sales, leading to unwinding of long positions by banks ahead of the weekend, but trade remained quiet and range-bound at the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market.

Closing at Rs 48.3700/3750 per dollar, slightly higher from Thursday’s finish of Rs 48.38/39, the rupee was confined to a tight band of Rs 48.3700 and Rs 48.3850 in directionless business. It opened on a positive note at Rs 48.37/38.

Steady flow of dollars from exporters and Non-Resident Indian (NRI) remittances continued to give the rupee underlying support, despite sporadic dollar demand from state-run banks, dealers said.

However, the forex spot trade was subdued and shallow in the absence of market-moving factors, they added. Turning to cross currency trades, the rupee reacted mildly downwards against euro and declined sharply against the British sterling.

The domestic unit ended lower against the single European currency at Rs 47.24/26 per euro from Thursday’s close of Rs 47.13/15 following a weak start at Rs 47.35/37 per euro.

It dipped against sterling to close at Rs 75.09/11 per pound from Rs 74.79/81 after a sharply lower opening slot of Rs 75.23/25 per pound.

The futures market was quiet and forward dollar premiums ended mildly lower on slight receiving interest owing to easy liquidity conditions at the domestic money market.

Uncertainty over interest rate cuts at the monetary policy review on October 29 partly affected sentiment and pushed down premiums, dealers said.

Far-forward premiums maturing in September-2003 closed at 178-176 paise, lower from 180-178 paise yesterday.

The benchmark six-months forward dollar premiums payable in March ended unchanged at 79-78 paise. (PTI)

PGCIL evacuates record power from eastern grid

NEW DELHI, Oct 25: Two recently-commissioned links of the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) have evacuated record power from the eastern region, which has a surplus, to the southern and northern regions.

Through earlier links evacuation of just 1100 mw was possible but the new Talcher-Kolar and Talcher-Sasaram links 1800 mw power was drawn today, according to a PGCIL statement.

The network will enable the states in South and North to get cost-effective electric power from eastern region and not approach other costly sources to fulfill their needs.

The power from Talcher is converted from AC to DC for transmission and then at the distribution end it is again converted to AC.

The enhanced power evacuation has also enabled to stabilise frequency at the source, eastern regional grid. (UNI)

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